Equilibrium

In the United States, the economy is affected by many influences, such as the housing market crisis, government bailout of the auto industry, and most recently the oil spill disaster in the gulf.   The economy is struggling to make an upturn and maintain its status as the world’s richest country.   However, one industry seems to have escaped a struggling economy - the cell phone industry.   Major cell phone providers are competing to produce the latest phones with the best technology and technology is a big contributor to price equilibrium in this industry.   Sprint Nextel is such a company.
To compete with AT&T’s Apple iPhone, Sprint involved the Taiwanese supplier, HTC Corporation, to manufacture the new HTC EVO.   What Sprint and HTC did not anticipate is the overwhelming response of consumer demand for this phone.   "We thought we would have more of a head start than we'll end up having," Sprint Nextel Chief Executive Dan Hesse stated in the Wall Street Journal (Cooper, 2010, para. 4).   Since Sprint launched the Evo June 4, 2010, the customer response for the phone has led to an extreme supply shortage; despite reports that the new Evo has bugs that HTC has not worked out.   According to Mark Hachman of PCMag.com (2010) the glitches that the phone has can be repaired with technological updates and these technology updates could be the reason consumers have not yet abandoned their desire for the EVO.   Like some 300,000 other Sprint customers, I have also been wooed by the new HTC EVO.   However, I found the need to make a deposit and walk out of the store empty handed annoying.   Regardless of the short supply, customers continue to wait patiently and as we wait, fortunately price equilibrium has remained constant with one caveat; competition among retailers that offer the phone is increasing.
Competition among cell phone providers is not the only competition occurring. Competition among retailers is also becoming an issue.   Sprint offers the phone for $199 after a...